Mahesh Mangaonkar will lead the field in the 43rd Maharashtra State Men’s Squash tournament at Bombay Gymkhana from Monday. His long time rival at the court Abhishek Pradhan who has been allotted second seeding in the four-day tournament will challenge him for the title. Delhi’s Gaurav Nandrajog and Maharashtra’s Abhishek Agarwal are among other top contenders for the crown.
Both India No 3 Mangaonkar and last year finalist Pradhan have enthralled the onlookers with tough duels right from their sub junior category days and squash fans will be hoping for another interesting contest between the two 24-year-old Borivali boys.
Pradhan had moved to Chennai for advanced coaching and was unavailable for four years later as he was studying in the United States. But he made a grand return in the same tournament last year by defeating top seed Robert Downer of England. He eventually lost to second seed Aditya Jagtap in the final.
Mangaonkar has achieved International success especially at the junior level and achieved his top world ranking of 44 at senior level in 2015. However he hasn’t been able to build on that success at international level but remains a top favourite in state and national tournaments.
One of the oldest running tournaments in the country will have total prize money of '5.25 lakhs. “It is the oldest running tournament in the country after Western India Squash Open which is hosted by Cricket Club of India. The winner will get prize money of '1,30,000 while runner up will get '75,000,” informed Championship Director Sumeet Rewari.
The men’s squash tournament will be followed by the third Indian Classic Junior Open Squash Tournament at the same venue. The five—day junior event from August 11, which has been accorded the status of an Asian Squash Federation Gold tournament will see participation from best junior talent in the country across 10 categories. Colombian Sebastian Aristizabal in the U-11 category will be the only foreign player in the event.
“With a total of 513 entries in U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 age categories for boys and girls this is one of the biggest International tournament in India in terms of participation. The total prize money for the tournament is seven lakhs and there will be equal prize money for both boys and girls winners,” Rewari added.
There are also 36 entries for unofficial mixed U-19 category which will run concurrently with Classic Junior Open.
Sixteen-year-old Yash Fadte will be player to watch in U-19 category though he is unseeded in the tournament as he hasn’t played many tournaments at U-19 level. Tushar Sahani is top seeded in the category followed by Rahul Baitha.
Alongwith Yash, many talented juniors who represented India in the World Junior Squash recently will be seen in action during the Classic Junior Open. Neel Joshi is the top seed in U17 boys category.
